EU Eyes Banning Huawei, ZTE Corp From Mobile Networks of Member Countries

The European Commission is considering turning its non-binding 2020 guidance on "high-risk vendors" into a legal requirement that would effectively force EU member states to phase out Huawei and ZTE from mobile and fixed-line networks. Bloomberg reports: Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen wants to convert the European Commission's 2020 recommendation to stop using high-risk vendors in mobile networks into a legal requirement, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private. While infrastructure decisions rest with national governments, Virkkunen's proposal would compel EU countries to align with the commission's security guidance.

The EU is increasingly focused on the risks posed by Chinese telecom equipment makers as trade and political ties with its second-largest trading partner fray. The concern is that handing over control of critical national infrastructure to companies with such close ties to Beijing could compromise national security interests.

Virkkunen is examining ways to limit the use of Chinese equipment suppliers in fixed-line networks, as countries push for the rapid deployment of state-of-the-art fiber cables to expand high-speed internet access. The commission is also considering measures to dissuade non-EU countries from relying on Chinese vendors, including by withholding Global Gateway funding from nations that use the grants for projects involving Huawei equipment, according to the people.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe they have, but here in my part of the EU it is very much an ongoing news topic how many services are dependent on fx. US owned cloud services, that the F-35s we buy can be grounded by the US. (Trump also seemed to "forget" the kickback countries usually get when doing such purchases, ie getting some manufacturing deals which is why parts of the plane is/was made outside the US)

I do not follow the news closely anymore but there are military purchases where we do not buy from US manufacturers.
Also polit

Third World Says Yay

[cusco]

This just leaves more product for other countries that run by morons, probably reducing prices worldwide. This is why much of Africa had 5G wireless before the US did.

Re:

[Ocker3]

I suspect that's more about the US phone companies not wanting to invest in new equipment without significant Gov subsidies as there's often not really a lot of competition in their markets.

US phone companies were charging people to send and receive SMS long after other countries stopped.

price

[nicubunu]

In my (East European) country I can have a 5G phone subscription for the price of 2€/month, this is possible because the operator (DIGI) uses Huawei and ZTE for their infrastructure. With such ban, the prices for end-users will skyrocket.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

It won't make any difference to security either. In fact, it will probably just make it worse. Huawei is one of the few vendors that supplies source code for security review (under NDA).

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Huawei is one of the few vendors that supplies source code for security review (under NDA).

Do they also provide build tools and allow customers to build and install their own images?

Re:price

[_merlin]

Yes, it's possible to build and deploy to your own switches to verify that the firmware matches the source. The trouble is, a lot of the code is bloody awful. There probably aren't any backdoors, but I'm sure there are security issues all over the place just because of how sloppy the code is. I don't expect Cisco is any better, it's just Huawei lets you see the situation.

Unsubstantiated Allegations, Nothing Proven

[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

The original Huawei ban in the US was because the company could have backdoors in their devices. Something like seven years later, there has simply been absolutely no proof that this is really the case - we are still in the "unsubstantiated allegations" phase. There have also been allegations - here and elsewhere - that comparable devices from the US have backdoors, has there been any confirmation of that? When the NSA were tapping Angela Merkel's phone, I know Denmark was involved but I don't know how it was done, although it did lead to Germany kicking an operative from the CIA out of the country.
Why is Huawei still being blacklisted?

Re:

[imse]

> The original Huawei ban in the US was because the company could have backdoors in their devices. Something like seven years later, there has simply been absolutely no proof that this is really the case - we are still in the "unsubstantiated allegations" phase. While it is true that there is no proof that is the case, the issue is that it's very easy to hide more or less undetectable backdoors in the hardware. So, true or not, many countries simply don't want to take such risk when it comes to their cr

Financial Times reports

[Quantum gravity]

Chinese sales restrictions have reduced Ericsson and Nokia's combined market share in China's mobile telecom networks from 12 to 4% since 2020. The reviews of European companies are carried out in a way that does not allow the companies to know how they are being assessed. The tests constitute a competitive disadvantage for European companies, according to the sources.

Finnish minister with ties to Nokia...

[LostMyBeaver]

So, here's the deal. First of all, this stinks of corruption. Henna Virkkunen will probably have a nice corner office at Nokia in 3-5 years because her work on this.

Next, using "safe vendors" leads to apathy. Nokia and Ericsson are worse than back doors. Their equipment is shit and their paywalled documentation looks like it was written during meetings held in pubs. Just hop on eBay, buy a used Nokia BBU, boot Open5GS and have fun. If you can't find at least 10 security holes in the first hour of looking, y